The One hundred and fifty-sixth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Parma Eldalamberon 18: Tengwesta Qenderinwa and Pre-Fëanorian Alphabets, Part 2 is available again on demand at The Great British Bookshop (Opens in a new window) and at Barnes and Noble (Opens in a new window).

Events & Shows

'Hobbit' designer builds dragon, other fantasy creatures at Ohio Shakespeare Festival (Opens in a new window) [Beacon Journal]

Fantasy’s Present Pasts – Call for Papers and Sessions (Opens in a new window) [University of Glasgow]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Opens in a new window) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Opens in a new window).

Scholarship & Fandom

I wrote a little piece on Christopher Lee on meeting the Professor (Opens in a new window) [Collider stole it the day after; not linking this]

Dimitra Fimi has Constructions of Childhood in Tolkien’s Legendarium (1): Childhood and the Elves (Opens in a new window) [Substack]

John Garth has The day Tolkien became a WW2 air raid warden (Opens in a new window) [Steady]

News: The Fall of Númenor Preview (Opens in a new window) [Hall of Beorn]

Anna Smol has Rereading The Notion Club Papers: Sauron and the Barber (Opens in a new window).

To my disappointment I had to write Boromir's Bloggish Bebotherments: Part 7: Scouring the net for all things Tolkienian in the age of AI slop… (Opens in a new window) [Steady]

Way more positive: My Oxford Year (Opens in a new window) review has been mentioned with the Oxford Clarion (Opens in a new window).

Miriam Ellis has Little Bilbo's Superpower: Seeing the End of the Road (Opens in a new window).

What Does “Home” Mean? (Opens in a new window) [Blog Tolkien Indonesia]

Stephen C. Winter has “Do You Understand, Mr. Frodo? I’ve Got to Go On.” Sam Gamgee Makes The Hardest Choice of His Life (Opens in a new window).

It is lovely to see some people are fighting back: Malvern 'did not inspire' CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia (Opens in a new window) [Ledbury Reporter]

Merchandise & Franchise

Magic: The Gathering’s foray into other franchises continues with the (Opens in a new window)[WizardsotC]

Game studios on target to be $1b industry as Government ups funding (Opens in a new window) [The Post, NZ]

Lord of the Rings Online has opened preorders for its fall expansion (Opens in a new window), Kingdoms of Harad [Massively OP]; A player from Lord of the Rings Online traverses Middle-earth on foot, impressively showcasing what makes the MMORPG so special (Opens in a new window) [mein-MMO.de]

Asmodee reveals study on board gaming (Opens in a new window) [ICv2; see also Board game giant Asmodee made 100 times less profit than Games Workshop (Opens in a new window) (Wargamer) ]

Lord of Rings legend a finalist at Surrey (Opens in a new window) [Newsroom NZ; on the legend that is Gamling - Bruce Hopkins]

Inter alia

The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem (Opens in a new window) [Walrus, Canada]

Star Trek is starting its 60th Anniversary - with a float (Opens in a new window) [StarTrek.com (Opens in a new window)]

STAR TREK fans finally get the Battle of Wolf 359 they were denied by 1990s budgets (Opens in a new window) [Wertzone]

Ten Years of The City of Lost Books (Opens in a new window) [University of Glasgow, fantasy literature]

Christian homeschoolers in the year 3000 (Opens in a new window) [Less Wrong]

The true cost of a pint (Opens in a new window) [Oxford Drinker]

My favourite all things books website, LibraryThing, is celebrating its 20th Anniversary (Opens in a new window). Yes, part of my library (Opens in a new window) is online thanks to their efforts.

If you care for one of the nicest spaces in Oxford you might like to chip in: Save the Vaults & Garden Café (Opens in a new window) [Crowdjustice]

Electronic Arts has been sold (Opens in a new window). [AP News; no surprise now that about the same time rumours were spread that a new LotR IP video game would be coming, then…]

Thinking about starting a newsletter, podcast, Patreon, Substack etc.?

Then do consider using Steady (Opens in a new window) - it is an exceptionally easy to use option for all needs. Built originally for an independent journalists’ collective, Krautreporter (Opens in a new window), it is run by creative minds for creative minds. Think Patreon, just better. It is based in Germany, free of enshittification (Opens in a new window) and nazis.

Do use my invite link (Opens in a new window) and start with three months fee-free.
[Transparency note: I get a small referral bonus with no extra costs to you.]

According to German law I have to inform you all links to enterprises, artists, products etc. are [unpaid advertisements.] Some purchase links may earn me a small commission from Blackwell's (Opens in a new window), Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window), or Genialokal (Opens in a new window), the (independent) bookshops of my personal trust (one with a Tolkien connection!)

If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Opens in a new window) : Facebook (Opens in a new window) : Bluesky (Opens in a new window) : Instagram (Opens in a new window) : Threads (Opens in a new window) : Mastodon (Opens in a new window).

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)

As this is 2025 I would like to note that this newsletter is 100% human-made, curated by me, Marcel R. Bülles. This also holds true for everything I write with my blog and here at Steady. Also, the minimum time of curating this newsletter ranges from 8-12 hours every week. Please consider supporting me so I can continue offering the Roving Ranger - thank you.